In memoriam

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What is Sarah Palin’s Higher Calling?

I’m dismayed . I hope you can help. Its about Sara Palin, the woman who just mysteriously abandoned her position as Governor of Alaska. “If I die [politically], I die” Sarah Palin told us today. What mystifies me is the word “if”.

I understand how she was catapulted into the national spotlight to start: A bull-headed politician with a history of rash decision-making throws all caution to the wind and chooses her as a running mate in a desperate attempt to spice-up his failed presidential bid. I get that.

A match made in ... haste

I can also understand why McCain’s plan backfired. Palin may have been the sexiest vice presidential candidate America had ever seen, but it was equally evident that she was also among the least qualified. Sarah Palin is, essentially, Dan Quayle with less experience and nicer legs.

Here is where it starts to get fuzzy for me. In interview after interview Palin has demonstrated her estrangement from the facts in every manner of domestic and foreign policy. The self-proclaimed “hockey mom” may have fielded questions with folksy charm, but her grasp of the issues was an insult to the mothers of young hockey players across America.

Then Obama is sworn in. McCain is quietly reabsorbed back into the Senate. And Palin becomes embroiled in legal battles over numerous violations of Alaska’s ethics code. (Ironically it was Governor Palin who fought to have the ethics bill signed into law. After it was disclosed that her own conduct was unethical, she marginalized the violations as “frivolous”. These violations were anything but frivolous when she championed them through her state’s legislature. It would seem the perspective gained while being hoisted with her own petard has changed the Governor’s view.)

Despite all this, Palin persists. Republican leaders, voters and pundits keep referring to her as the republican party’s shining star for the 2012 election. This is were I need your help.

Sarah Palin is, essentially, Dan Quayle with less experience and nicer legs.

Aside from celebrity and the MILF-factor, what does Sarah Palin have to offer that keep her in serious contention for the most intellectually and ethically demanding job in America?

Haven’t we seen enough over the past 10 months to ascertain that despite everything we may like about Sarah Palin, she’s just not up for that job?

And haven’t we seen enough in the eight preceding years to understand that it takes more than folksy homespun populist ineloquence to lead a nation?

Lastly, if we were not convinced a week ago, hasn’t her behavior over the past few days revoked her right to be taken seriously by anyone who cares about the preservation of our democracy?

First there is how she handled the announcement itself. Her decision to step down as governor was so rashly conceived that both politicians and friends were taken by surprise. Never a good idea in politics. In fact, the announcement of the press conference was handled in the same way one might announce a backyard keg party. “Palin hastily called a news conference Friday morning at her home in suburban Wasilla, giving such short notice that only a few reporters actually made it to the announcement.” (Rachael D’Oro, AP).

Second, there is the vague wording and cryptic reasoning she provided for her resignation. The people who voted her into office deserve a straight answer as to why she is abandoning their trust – sans the political double-talk and diversion tactics that plague “politics as usual”.

Third is the drama she is trying to stir up over her next move by dropping hints via Facebook and Twitter to a “higher calling”. Why not just tell people? If nothing else, she owes her constituents that much. This showboating is an insult to anyone who actually cares what she does. As for the higher calling, are we to assume she is about to enter the convent? (At least that way her legal fees would be subsidized by the Catholic Church.)

In any event, her 30-minute song and dance last Friday fell way short of the mark on every level. I interpret her inability to articulate why she is quitting the state’s highest office to mean:

• she doesn’t know
• she does know but it trying to conceal the truth
• she does know but is purposely using her position to create confusion and drama in the hope of furthering her career.

All of those alternatives are equally disturbing.

Palin the Rodeo Clown: Will the last laugh be on Sarah?

Given all this, can anyone seriously consider Sarah Palin as a candidate for President? Is celebrity and a certain MILF-factor the best credentials the republican party has to offer our political system? Or is that just the point? Perhaps the republican party is using Sarah Palin as some sort of political rodeo clown to keep us all distracted between elections so we don’t focus on the shambles that the party is in. Perhaps her job is to keep the party in the headlines until 2012 and keep the focus off people like Ensign and Sanford. Chances are she would self-destruct by the time the 2012 campaign started in earnest and then she could be sidelined so that people like Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee could take center stage.

My biggest concern is that Americans, and in particular republicans, will continue to take this woman seriously, no matter what. That hurts, because I want to believe that the days when being a plucky dolt with a homespun take on the world and marginal grip on the facts qualified you for president were over. I had hoped that was simply a phase we were going through in the 90‘s and that we, as a nation, had grown out of it with the retirement of George W. But the popularity of this plucky Alaskan dolt would seems to indicate that we never learn and that a significant percentage of our populous will always gravitate towards the dim and inarticulate for leadership.

Perhaps the real question with Palin is simply: How far can good looks and pluck take you in life? I’m hoping the answer to that question is Governor of Alaska, and no further.

Europe and its Muslims: A Gap of Trust

The following is a reply to a post made by Hollywood filmmaker, author of “Mother of the Believers” Kamran Pasha in the Huffington Post Titled: Europe and its Muslims: A gap of Trust.

Kamran, I admire your optimism. But your analogy to the ancient people of Abyssinia is absurd. And the fact that today Ethiopia has a 61% Christian majority is cold comfort to Europeans who are facing a Muslim majority in their own country within their lifetimes.

As a US expat living in Sweden I think advising Europeans to determine if their fears are based on prejudice or facts is a bit late. They are afraid and the facts support their apprehension. Chief among these is the fact is that unlike Abyssinia Sweden will have a Muslim majority in 2049. As the Gallup pole reveals most European Muslims have a greater affinity to their religious beliefs than to their adopted country. The religious beliefs of Islam are diametrically opposed to Sweden”s liberal world view, particularly as it regards gender equality, free speech, sexuality, and tolerance. Will a Muslim majority in Sweden separate church from state and leave the Swedish culture intact? Many here doubt that, and are prudent to do so.

So I feel tales of ancient Abyssinia have little relevance here. But I have a suggestion: Instead of using your last book as an example to calm the waters, write a new one. Show the Europeans what Europe as an Islamic nation would be like. Because that is the reality they are trying to deal with. I”ve already started such a project and would be happy to collaborate. I’m on WordPress named Nonrhotic ( http://nonrhotic.wordpress.com/ ).
More on Europe
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Civil liberties still grounded at many US airports

George W. may be done and dusted, but his legacy lives on in several of the laws and institutions he left in his aftermath. The oxymoronic Patriot Act, the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration come to mind.

I travel a lot so I’m all for keeping our airlines safe — to a point. And that point is when overzealous security folks begin to bully passengers and disregard civil liberties under the guise of keeping our airways safe. The recent case of Steve Bierfeldt, a US citizen who was detained and subject to interrogation and abuse for trying to board a domestic airplane while carrying $4700 in cash is a case in point. What makes his case special? Nothing except for the fact that he happened to record his interaction with the TSA. His story provides us with a glimpse of what homeland fascism sounds like.

The TSA and its parent organization, the Department of Homeland Security have operated with impunity since they were established by the Bush administration as part of their misguided war on terror. Giving these organizations what, in practice, amounted to carte blanche was a mistake in the first place. But now it is time to rein them in.

George Bush taught us that if we wanted safety it would cost us our civil liberties. I speculate that he did this because he lacked the mental facilities to find a solution incorporating both. And because it served his administration’s shady interests to curtail the rights of ordinary Americans. In any case, selling us protection in return for our liberty set a dark precedent in US history.

Evidently, all these posters will need to be reprinted to include cash

I think some people representing the TSA pose as great a threat to our constitution and our way of life as the bad guys they are supposed to be keeping off planes. On more than one occasion since 9/11 I have had to bite my tongue at the hands of obnoxious, bullying airport, airline or TSA personnel who were clearly out of line. To do otherwise would surely result in an incident report making matters worse. For the last eight years Americans who wish to travel have been forced to avail themselves to either Bin Laden’s brand of terrorism or Bush’s brand of fascism. I don’t want either.

I want to be safe when I fly and I want my civil liberties respected. I think our America under the Obama administration can accommodate both.

Its time to make our airports safe for passengers and democracy. The TSA encounter recorded by Steve Bierfeldt indicates this is not yet the case. I suggest that Janet Napolitano and Gale Rossides find ways to make it explicitly clear to their respective organizations that the constitution of the United States (including all its amendments and the bill of rights) were officially reinstated as America’s rule of law on January 20th, 2009. Then I, for one, can turn my travel-related indignation to more fitting subjects like the lack of leg room in economy class.

Large Hadron Collider Explained

A very clear explanation of what’s happening at CERN. It helps us understand how the protons are sped up and smashed. I’m still a little fuzzy on exactly what we will learn from this. Please feel free to fill me in if you know.

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